We want everyone who loves their country to support KOMİD and similar NGOs in order not to make the mistakes that we Germans and Italians have made and continue to do.

The development of the Turkish textile industry over the years and its growth in foreign markets should be supported by increasingly aggressive marketing activities. Here, NGOs that guide our companies and bring their activities in export markets to a level that will contribute to Turkish textile gain great importance.

Turkish garment machinery manufacturers are on the way to make the power of our domestic manufacturing industry felt in foreign markets, with an increasing tone every day. Moving faster on this path reveals the natural need for them to agree to join forces under the roof of an expert association. The "Confection Automation Machinery Manufacturers Association", whose short name is KOMİD, is taking its place in the sector as the unifying umbrella of Turkish companies that manufacture and export automation machines, which are the pioneers of apparel manufacturing. We interviewed for our readers with Haluk AKIN, Chairman of the Board of Directors of EPA Akın Makine, who is the founder of the association and also a Member of the Board of Directors, about the aims and activities of this young and dynamic association.

Can we get to know you briefly?

I am a business person who entered the apparel business in 1982. When my cousins bought a shirt factory, my family asked me to support them and that's how I got to know the textile industry. In the following years, by adding working discipline to my business knowledge, I made an effort to pave the way for both my own business and the sector, and I never lost my enthusiasm.

How was the situation in the sector when your company was founded, could you briefly share with our readers the difficulties you faced?

At that time, the machine was in very difficult conditions. There was no foreign exchange and the prices were very high. As a result, we were paying serious money while buying machines. Again at that time, as we say, there was a need for complementary machines, and these complementary machines were being sold in Turkey at very high prices, primarily by the leading machine manufacturer countries of Europe. Countries that had a say in textiles at that time were now outsourcing their sewing work abroad because labor was very expensive in their own countries. They were doing contract work in Türkiye, Yugoslavia and South Korea. We were also working to get a share of this cake and we were trying to increase the production quality and speed with our machinery. The textile industry, which saw the price, exchange rate and foreign exchange situation in our country, was selling its old machines to us in its factories in developed countries. Since we were short of foreign exchange and cash, we were accepting serious percentages of money cut from the products we sewed instead of cash payment. I guess that many foreign companies sold their old machines in this way to us Turkish apparel manufacturers for very serious money and made additional profits that they could never imagine.

In order to continue our production by meeting the desired quality standards, we had to purchase some new machines. Our foreign buyers showed us European addresses for the machines; You will get the press from here, you will get it from here. Moreover, they have somehow declared that if we do not receive them, they will not be able to employ them in the upcoming period.

How did the development of the textile industry and your company continue?

In the 90s, these countries could not sell us machines, because we started to bring cheaper, even better and technological machines. We bought machines that are better than the machine quality of the countries that say you will buy machines from the place I said, for almost half the price, from Italians and Japanese. In the next stage, we started to produce some of them in Turkey. Unfortunately, we could not support a few Turkish companies that attempted and produced sewing machine heads, and they could not produce sewing machines. However, over the years, we have been producing many sewing machines, ironing presses, laying and cutting systems that have a voice in the world with individual efforts. We have factories that produce hot machines with many complementary apparatus.

Could you briefly describe the support you gave to Turkish companies in the process of expanding our textile companies abroad and the difficulties you encountered in foreign markets? 

Together with my company, we took part in the Samap Fair, which had a say at that time, in Milan, Italy, in 1993, with Silter, Epa and Kuba Makine, with a 55 m2 stand, saying “yes, our machines are now compared with German or Italian machines”. I guess we, as the first Turkish company in this sector, participated in such a fair, but we did not get a serious result. we, as Turkish companies, showed our first stance in the world market and opened the horizons of other Turkish companies and encouraged them. Right after that, we participated in the IMB garment machinery fair in Germany. We must have disturbed the developed textile countries so much that they disturbed a leading Turkish company in the sector (whose owner is a friend who speaks German very well), unjustly at the fair by saying "your machines are similar to ours". Of course, many machines are similar to each other, inspired by technologies, this is natural. The important thing is to have enough knowledge and technology to improve the existing, that I have not witnessed serious machine manufacturers around me copy directly from a company. Today, almost most of the companies struggling in the market have found a place in the world market for their machines with their own contributions. Of course, even if there are companies that enter the market by making direct copies, they cannot hold on and leave. Today, when it comes to number one jeans machine in Bangladesh, a Turkish brand comes first. In the same way, we produce machines for many world brands, the world's leading brands, with ironing presses.

Can you evaluate your departure process for KOMİD? 

As for the reasons for founding KOMİD (Apparel Automation Machinery Manufacturers Association), we have been participating in fairs since the 90's. I partnered with Italians for many years, attended fairs with them, learned and saw many things in many countries of the world. I wanted to take the truth of them and bring them to life. We are one of the companies that participate in the most international fairs among Turkish garment machinery manufacturers. In these fairs, we saw that the trade attaché of the Italians always came to them and supported them. However, we, the Turkish trade attache, came and asked "How are you?" before the fair. he said, "Do you have a problem, do you need help?" Unfortunately, we never saw what he said. I researched this, I wonder if this is their law or if we don't have such a regulation. I have observed that many more of them are in the protocol of the state and that the state contributes to the promotion of not only participating in fairs abroad, but also while doing business, but SME-sized companies cannot use it, and from time to time, bureaucrats in the country they go to cannot use it because they are insufficient. For this reason, I contacted the consulate, embassy and trade attachés in that country before the fairs I went to in recent years and I received many positive feedbacks for my company. Why not do this for all of us together under the roof of KOMİD? We said, "Let's be a strong association, let's use the support and power given to us by the Turkish state in our promotions in the countries we visit" and we set out together in this way.

What will be your warnings to machine manufacturers? 

The pandemic process will of course end and we will run to many countries of the world again. We are working to exist in the market like 1 billion dollars. We want everyone who loves their country to support KOMİD and similar NGOs in order not to make the mistakes that we Germans and Italians have made and continue to do. If you ask what mistake they made, let's list them first. Firstly, they did not show the necessary importance to the after-sales service of the machines. They did not make the parts stocks sufficient in the country they went to, and they made the parts supply from their country too late and at very high prices. In addition, they did not provide sufficient technical training, so they did not stand firmly behind the machines they sold. As a result, the ownership of those hundred-year-old companies has passed from Europeans to Chinese and will continue to do so.

After-sales service is not a monetized department, but the companies of these countries want to make money from it as well. They charge a service fee for the 3.5 month old machine (it doesn't matter if it's user error or not), they don't give parts. Moreover, they continue to claim that we make much better machines than competitors. Okay, your part is expensive, your service is expensive and you are giving late service. Machine manufacturers with apparel origin, like us, do not accept the logic of late service, late and expensive spare parts supply. Many garment manufacturers in the world do not accept this, and they say that I get the same production results in almost the same time with the much cheaper machine of the Chinese! Even though the machine life of the Chinese is shorter, it also calculates the difference paid when buying and the service and parts money that the Germans and Italians will give to their machines, and as a result, they are increasingly turning to Chinese manufacturers, even if they do not want to. We, the Turkish manufacturers, are in a very advantageous position right between the Europeans and the Chinese. If we can find the right balance in price, quality and service, we can easily increase our market share. However, for this, we must first be smarter, more careful and less offensive in our competition with each other. Of course, it is not so easy for companies that are in a competitive position to come together because they produce the same products. However, we can at least prevent the end users from making profits by using the competition between us to make us hurt each other.

Finally, how would you like to address our readers?

Finally, I will talk about the negativity experienced by one of our jeans machine manufacturer member, in terms of expressing a problem seen in the entire sector:

A machinist from Sultançiftliği bought a machine from one of our machine manufacturers, declaring that it would be delivered to Uzbekistan. It is very sad that we saw this machine at the stand of a Chinese company at the fair in Bangladesh. Some so-called changes were made and they were put on display at the fair. We, as KOMİD, want to prevent the repetition of such a disgrace and even treason in our opinion by deciphering this person and others like him. This is one of the founding purposes of KOMİD.

Finally, I will mention one more thing. We see that the goals of German and Italian companies, whose founding owners are aging and transitioning to the second generation, are to exit the market by selling to Chinese companies at high prices in recent years. Why shouldn't we Turks join forces with at least a few companies and consider buying companies that have become brands in the international market due to old age, not being able to manage finances and similar reasons? For example, a German fabric cutting company (my possibilities were very limited at that time) was offered to us at a very affordable price, and even to the company that sells the products of the company in question in Turkey. However, in the end, a Chinese company bought this company, not us. Unfortunately, while we Turkish companies dream of making myself a brand, I will bring myself somewhere and sell my brand, while the Chinese company in its 2nd year made a turnover of 7 times the investment it made for purchasing, in just one year, only in the country. Turkish machinery manufacturers are now in this situation, maybe if not alone, if a few companies come together, we can get companies and we can get much higher shares from this market, whose annual turnover exceeds one billion dollars.